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A.J. Allmendinger claimed his first pole in the Sprint Cup Series in three years after winning Saturday's qualifying for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway -- the first road-course race in NASCAR's top series this season.

Simon Pagenaud claimed the pole position while his teammate, Helio Castroneves, qualified second to give Team Penske a sweep of the front starting row for Saturday's 500-mile IndyCar Series race at Auto Club Speedway.

Allmendinger, who is in his second full season with JTG Daugherty Racing, has become one of the best road-course racers in NASCAR lately. One year ago at Sonoma, Allmendinger started second and led a race-high 35 laps before he was involved in an accident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. He ended up finishing two laps down in 37th.

This year, Jones is running full-time in trucks, driving the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He is currently fourth in the series point standings, 33 points behind leader and two-time defending champion Matt Crafton. Jones has yet to win a truck race this season, but he has led the most laps in three of the previous five events. Last Saturday at Gateway Motorsports Park, he started on the pole and ran in front for 84 of the 160 laps but suffered an electrical issue in the late going, which led to a season-worst 23rd-place finish.

Will Power claimed his fifth pole of the season, while his teammates, Simon Pagenaud and Juan Pablo Montoya, qualified second and third, respectively, to give Team Penske the top-three starting spots for Sunday's IndyCar Series race on the streets of Toronto.

Nemechek had been sharing seat time with his father, Joe Nemechek, a longtime NASCAR veteran, in the No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet. John Hunter, a member of the "NASCAR Next" initiative, highlighting the sport's top up-and- coming drivers, has competed in two truck races this season. He finished 29th at Martinsville and 22nd at Dover.

The Sprint Cup Series is running at Michigan International Speedway this weekend. After Michigan, the series will take a week off and then head to Sonoma, California (June 28), Daytona (July 5), Kentucky (July 11), New Hampshire (July 19), Indianapolis (July 26), Pocono (Aug. 2) and Watkins Glen (Aug. 9) before returning to Michigan (Aug. 16). Bristol (Aug. 22), Darlington (Sept. 6) and Richmond (Sept. 12) are the last three races on the regular season schedule.

Montoya competed in an IndyCar race at Texas for the first time in 2014, starting fourth and finishing third. His lone victory in the series last year occurred at Pocono, a 2.5-mile triangle-shaped track. Montoya is the only driver with multiple victories this season. He won the March 29 season-opener in St. Petersburg, Florida.

If Earnhardt wins Sunday's 400-mile race at Pocono, he will join Bobby Allison and Tim Richmond as those drivers with three straight victories here. Allison accomplished the feat from 1982-83, and Richmond did it from 1986-87.

After winning last Friday's race at Dover -- the sixth event on this year's series schedule -- Reddick moved to within 11 points of Crafton for the lead. It was the second career truck victory for Reddick, with his first occurring in the Feb. 20 season-opener at Daytona.

NASCAR rookie driver Ryan Blaney, who drives on the Truck, Xfinity and Sprint Cup series, recently sat down with The Sports Network and answered some questions about the ups and downs of a rookie and what he's learning.

Martin Truex Jr. led the most laps for the fourth straight race, only this time he was in front on the one that mattered most, breaking through Sunday at Pocono Raceway for his first Sprint Cup victory since 2013.

Defending IndyCar Series champion Will Power won the pole position for the first race in the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit weekend doubleheader after setting a new track qualifying record on the Belle Isle Park street circuit.

The series is running its sixth race of the season on Friday at Dover International Speedway. On the following day, Jones will celebrate his 19th birthday. He's scheduled to compete in the Xfinity race at this track on Saturday.

Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya arrived in Detroit on Thursday after his media tour in New York City on Tuesday and then Wednesday's appearance in Fort Worth, Texas, where the series will race on June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Those drivers who qualified for Dover based on their finishes at Charlotte include: Regan Smith (fourth-place finish), Darrell Wallace Jr. (fifth), Daniel Suarez (sixth) and Ty Dillon seventh. Wallace and Suarez are rookies in the series this year.

Truex, who hails from Mayetta, New Jersey, is having the best start of his 10- year career in the series, as he currently sits second in the point standings (41 points behind leader and defending series champion Kevin Harvick). He has scored 11 top-10 finishes in 12 races this year, including a second-place run in the March 8 race at Las Vegas.

Dale Coyne Racing pit crew member Daniel Jang, part of Tristan Vautier's No. 18 crew, suffered a broken right ankle when he was hit by James Davison's car during a round of pit stops just past the halfway point in Sunday's Indianapolis 500.

Buescher passed Elliott for the lead on the last restart with just two laps to go to win the 259-lap race at Iowa. He claimed his second career victory in the series. His maiden win occurred last August on the Mid-Ohio road course.